I found mention of that part of the song in this web-site which quotes a 1962 issue of Time Magazine Unfortunately it doesn't give any more of it that you listed or even a songwriter or singer. Might check the libraries to see if any more information is in the actual issue.

I think the song is called Strontium Ninety, ca late 50's, attributed to Inman and Ira, and there my personal thread runs out. (It is called CRS, for those who can't afford Alzheimer's) I can remember singing it while in college, where it was a pointed reminder that Strontium 90 was one of the many radioactive byproducts of nuclear bombs, especially dangerous as it would happily substitute for/replace the Calcium in your bones, to the danger of both you and your bones.

I'm sure it appeared in Sing Out, and might have made it into one of their many reprints, perhaps even Rise up Singing.

"Ann and Marry Cleary's STRONTIUM 90, our intrepid Editor, Mark Moss, blasted back with the following: "There were two recordings of the song that I know of ... both from the early 1960s: Inman and Ira, Singing Spokesmen from the New Generation, Mercury #20778, LP (196?), cut#A.06; and Johnson Boys, Singin' and Pickin', Bethlehem #4013, LP (1963), cut#A.01 (Strontium Ninety)."

Unfortunately no lyrics but I think they are in the Sierra Club Environmental Songbook that is buried somewhere in my livingroom; I might be able to access that book after the spring thaw!

Well, I didn't find the song in the SIERRA CLUB SURVIVAL SONG BOOK and it's all your fault that my back got strained trying to reach that book on the bottom shelf of the bookcase blocked by boxes of mysteries that my wife has piled up.

However, I did find the song in REPRINTS FROM SING OUT! (1964-1973), p. 13. It was reprinted from SING OUT!, Volume 7 (1964).

G-----------------D7 Last night I went to a party, -------------------------G Danced so I just about passed out; -----------------------C But just when the party was gayest A7-------------------D Some crazy guy began to shout:

Chorus:

C-----------------G--------------D7 Strontium, Strontium, Strontium Ninety fall-out ----------G Will get you even underground; ---------C------------------G Now if you want some Strontium, Strontium Ninety, ------D7-----------------G There's plenty enough to go around.

What will we get from radiation? No necks, two necks or maybe three; Each one will have his own mutation; Nobody else will look like me! (CHO)

So drink to the course of evolution; The next one may very well be you; Clouding the air with pollution, And we'll see you next year at the zoo! (CHO)

The note to the song says:

"The scientists tell us that Strontium 90, a highly poisonous element, is released in tremendous quanities by the exploding of atomic bombs. Here is the comment of two California sisters."

The tune seems inspired by "The Frozen Logger" or something similar, with the A7 added to jazz it up. The chord placement is not working well this morning. Need more coffee!

Thanks, Charlie!!! Another old thread recovered and answered! Soon we'll have all of the first 500 finished, I hope. Think there is still about 30 or 40 not answered. Some are answered in later threads and I didn't link to them yet.

Was this an old thread request? I was thinking that old hippie was making a new one.

Anyway, I'm happy to help.

I wonder if old hippie would be interested in our old ditty "The Roaches Will Inherit The Earth." It's another anti-nuke song which I collaborated on in Michigan in the 1970's and which I'm sure I've posted a few times on this website.

Em I must offer to you a confession, ---Am-------------------------Em It's one that I've known from my birth, -----------Am Given nuc-lear power, --Em In that final hour ----Bm The roaches inherit the earth!

The song I remember went "Strontium, strontium, strontium ninety. Fallout will get you even underground. So if you want some strontium ninety, there's plenty enough to go around." Anyone else remember this one? Or who recorded it?

I remember we also had a sticker we would stick on the milk dispensing machines that all grocers' shops had outside at the time, which read "Milk + Strontium 90 = Cancer", with the CND logo {aka the Peace Sign Stateside ~~ but let's not get into that again!}.

the only source I know of for "Strontium 90" was a paperback sic-fi anthology published around 1960, with another gem "radiation blues". My copy long since lost, along with the volume title. I never heard anyone sing either gem.